Woman accuses Allegheny County judge of victim blaming at sentencing in sexual assault case

A woman who was sexually assaulted lashed out Tuesday at the Allegheny County judge who presided over her offender’s trial, saying his verdict and the language he used with her was victim blaming.

“I came to trial hoping for and expecting justice for being assaulted,” she said at the sentencing hearing on Tuesday. “Instead, I was insulted by the verdict which seemed to blame me, in the way it was presented, by repeatedly accusing me of being ‘blasted.’”

Following a bench trial in April before Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani, Kelli Norman Rini Jr. was found guilty of one count of indecent assault of an unconscious person. It is a misdemeanor.

Mariani at the time found Rini, an Uber driver, not guilty of the more serious count, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of an unconscious person. That crime, which requires penetration, is a felony.

At sentencing, Mariani ordered the defendant to serve nine to 18 months in jail, to be followed by three years probation. In addition, Rini, 34, of McKees Rocks, must register as a sex offender.

In handing down the sentence, Mariani did not directly address the woman’s allegations in her victim impact statement but said that “her level of intoxication hurt her credibility with the details of this event,” and “diminished her ability to perceive things.”

But, he continued, he does not believe she lied.

According to the criminal complaint, the woman, told investigators that she had been out with a male friend the night of Feb. 8, 2020, and called an Uber to get home because she was intoxicated. The Tribune-Review does not name victims of sexual assault.

Rini was the driver who picked them up. But on the way home, police said, the woman began arguing with her friend, and Rini kicked the man out of his car. Rini then drove the woman to her home in Robinson.

Once there, she realized she didn’t have her keys, and Rini offered to drive her back to her car so she could get them. They then returned to her residence about 6:15 a.m. on Feb. 9.

The woman told police she couldn’t remember exactly what happened, but that she passed out in her bed. When she woke up, Rini was sexually assaulting her.

“(The woman) said it took her a few seconds to realize what was happening and then told Kelli to stop, which he did,” police wrote in the complaint.

Afterward, the woman said she was so scared she curled up into a fetal position on her bed.

Later that day, she told police, she exchanged text messages with Rini.

In one, she wrote, “You definitely touched me while I was sleeping.”

Rini replied, “U right I did an I was totally wrong for that I’m sorry, but u are a beautiful young lady it was hard not to try.. Please accept my apology for it..I totally understand if u don’t want to talk to me nomore. … I’m extremely sorry again.”

Following the one-day trial, Mariani issued his verdict — repeatedly referencing the woman’s intoxication.

“She is completely blasted, drinking all night, street parties, completely blasted,” Mariani said, according to the court transcript. “She drinks until they close the place and goes somewhere else to have some more drinks.

“She doesn’t even know where she is. She doesn’t know Homestead from Homewood.”

Mariani said that he found the woman’s testimony that she did not consent “reliable and worthy of belief, to the point where I find the defendant guilty of count two beyond a reasonable doubt.”

But, as to involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, Mariani said, he didn’t think the prosecution met its burden.

“The same problem that she describes, her being intoxicated to the point of nodding off or falling asleep, of not being aware of what’s going on also gives this court pause as to the specific nature of this encounter, whether there actually was penetration, however slight, because of her lack of consciousness of what was happening and only being made conscious enough to know that something was happening in that area of her body,” the judge said.

While Mariani said there’s no doubt Rini sexually assaulted the woman, “(T)he fact is the court has a doubt as to whether this victim can describe with that kind of accuracy exactly what was happening.”

But in her victim-impact statement she read on Tuesday, the woman wondered what more she would need for a guilty verdict on both counts.

“Having a text message from the man who assaulted me saying that he touched me while I was sleeping wasn’t enough,” she wrote. “I’m deeply concerned for all of the victims out there who are afraid to be honest or who don’t have the kind of evidence that I had.”

The woman told Mariani that she called an Uber to be provided with a safe form of transportation, and that she was unable to resist, let alone consent.

“He did what he did to me when I was unconscious. How or why I came to be in this vulnerable state should not matter,” she told Mariani.

She noted that the only evidence presented to the court about her drinking that night came from her own testimony.

“So my testimony that I had consumed alcohol was believable but not my testimony that this man penetrated me…,” she said. “Being blasted should not be relevant, there is no amount of ‘blasted’ that can possibly make it less of a crime to assault someone. To mockingly suggest so is to blame the victim and to impact him/her by adding to his/her trauma. I got sexually assaulted while sleeping in what was supposed to be the safety of my own home.”

The woman said that by standing up for herself, she hopes she can prevent Rini from hurting anyone else.

“This trial has taught me how difficult the legal process is for sexual assault victims, and it has taught me how careless companies like Uber are,” she said.

“Throughout this process, I have remained pretty calm. I tried my best to make everyone else feel comfortable about what happened to me. I think that I initially allowed myself to downplay the trauma of my assault and even told myself it ‘could have been worse.’ But after hearing the verdict read, the only thought or question in my mind was, ‘how much worse did it need to be for him to be found guilty of what he actually did to me?’”

During the hearing, defense attorney Elizabeth Laforgia told the court that it was not a case of “stranger danger,” but that the victim invited Rini into her home.

“This was a misunderstanding,” she said.

Rini, who spoke on his own behalf, told Mariani, “It was a dumb situation to ever accept her invite to her house.

“I just want to apologize to this court and (the victim) for accepting her invite in,” Rini said. “I apologize for putting myself and [the victim] in the situation, but what she said is not true.”

Mariani said in sentencing him above the standard advisory guideline range that Rini’s continued denial that there was an assault makes him a threat to the community.

“You were in a position of care. You were an Uber driver. People trust you,” Mariani told Rini. “You took advantage of that.”

Following the sentencing, the woman said she was pleased with Rini’s punishment and how Mariani handled the sentencing hearing.

“I think he heard what I had to say in my statement and took it into consideration,” she said. “I feel like he didn’t take into account how his verbiage could impact me and make me feel.

“I really do think he listened to me. That’s all I wanted.”